Bill will make school enrolment policies more transparent
Some will be the subject of regulations under the School Admissions Bill published today by Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan.
Although most of the detail is unchanged from a draft bill circulated in September 2013 by Ms O’Sullivan’s predecessor, Ruairi Quinn, it will exclude a provision that would have seen parents and schools facing court battles where a decision not to enrol a child was disputed.
Parent representatives were not satisfied that the proposal for the decision of a principal to be appealed to the school board was transparent enough, while management bodies feared the exposure to litigation.
It is still proposed that principals will make initial enrolment decisions, but Ms O’Sullivan will propose an independent appeal mechanism during the bill’s passage through the Oireachtas. The facility for parents unhappy with a school-based appeal would replace the system of appeals heard by a Department of Education-appointed committee that is generally agreed to be over-bureaucratic for all sides.
Ms O’Sullivan will tell the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) annual congress this morning that the vast majority of schools are welcoming but some are over-subscribed.
“They can not be blamed for that. But they can be expected to be fair and transparent in deciding how to prioritise children for admission,” she will say.
However, it is the likely reduction in places that over-subscribed schools can set aside for past pupils’ children which will draw most controversy. Fine Gael figures have made representations on behalf of some schools which were concerned at being unable to guarantee places to alumni for their children.
Mr Quinn had proposed a 25% upper limit, to take account of families moving into areas who might be unfairly excluded otherwise, but the Oireachtas Education Committee proposed schools should have no right to favour past pupils’ families. While Ms O’Sullivan looks unlikely to go that far, her intention to reduce it to 10% is likely to be welcomed by groups which made representations on the issue, including those representing Travellers.
As previously flagged, the bill will allow Ms O’Sullivan to make regulations that could ban the use of waiting lists, application fees, interviews, or entrance exams to decide who can be enroled.
Schools would be allowed prioritise children with siblings currently or previously in attendance, above a minimum age, living in a defined catchment area, or with a parent on staff. It is also intended to continue the exemption from equality law that allows schools to prefer children of the same religious faith if there are more applicants than available places.
Ms O’Sullivan also intends to use the bill to amend the Education Act to allow the creation of a charter to strengthen parents’ and students’ position, and in turn to reduce the need for complaints and grievance procedures.
The right of the minister to appoint an independent person to operate a school’s admissions policy is still proposed but court approval would be needed first under an amendment she plans to propose at committee stage.
